The politics of Trinidad and Tobago function within the framework of a unitary state regulated by a parliamentary democracy modelled on that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from which the country gained its independence in 1962. Under the 1976 republican Constitution, the monarch was replaced as head of state by a President chosen by an electoral college composed of the members of the bicameral Parliament, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The United National Congress is one of two major political parties in Trinidad and Tobago and the current parliamentary opposition. The UNC is a centre-left party. It was founded in 1989 by Basdeo Panday, a Trinidadian lawyer, economist, trade unionist, and actor after a split in the ruling National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR). After spending six years in opposition, the UNC won control of the government in 1995, initially in coalition with the NAR and later on its own. In the 2000 general election, the UNC won an absolute majority in the Parliament. In 2001, a split in the party caused the UNC to lose its parliamentary majority and control of the government. From 2001 to 2010, the UNC was once again Parliamentary Opposition party. In May 2010, the UNC returned to government as the majority party in the People's Partnership. The UNC's Political Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Kamla Persad-Bissessar was Prime Minister from 2010 until 2015.
The People's National Movement (PNM) is the longest-serving and oldest active political party in Trinidad and Tobago. The party has dominated national and local politics for much of Trinidad and Tobago's history, contesting all elections since 1956 serving as the nation's governing party or on four occasions, the main opposition. It is one out of the country's two main political parties. There have been four PNM Prime Ministers and multiple ministries. The party espouses the principles of liberalism and generally sits at the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum.
The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is a unicameral devolved legislative body responsible for the island of Tobago within the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago. The THA was re-established in 1980 to rectify some of the disparities in the relationship between the two islands; a prior body of the same name existed from 1768 to 1874. In addition to the normal local government functions, the THA handles many of the responsibilities of the central government, but has limited ability to collect taxes and to impose local law or zoning regulations. At the helm of the Assembly Legislature is the Presiding Officer with the fifteen elected assemblymen, and four appointed councillors. Three of the councillors are appointed on the advice on the Chief Secretary and one on the advice of the Minority Leader. The Chief Secretary is the leader of the majority party in the assembly and is at the helm of the Executive arm of the THA.
An election for the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) was held on January 19, 2009. The PNM won 8 seats and obtained 51.48% of the votes while the TOP won 4 seats and 48.32% of the votes.
The Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) is an autonomist political party in Tobago formed in 2008. Its current political leader is Ashworth Jack. The party was formed in 2008 from a split with the Democratic Action Congress.
Elections to the Tobago House of Assembly have taken place every 4–5 years since its establishment in 1980. There are twelve electoral districts, each electing one representative. The People's National Movement has been successful in all five elections between 2001 and 2017. Between 1980 and 1996, parties achieving a majority were the Democratic Action Congress and the National Alliance for Reconstruction.
General elections were held in Trinidad and Tobago on 7 September 2015. The date of the general elections was announced by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on 13 June 2015. The result was a victory for the opposition People's National Movement, which received 52% of the vote and won 23 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives.
Anthony Isidore Smart is a Trinidadian politician and lawyer. He served as a Member of Parliament from December 1986 to November 1991 and Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago from March 1989 to November 1991. He was also Political Leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) from April 2000 to November 2001. He has been chairman of the First Citizens Bank since June 17, 2014.
On Monday November 28, 2016, local elections were held in Trinidad, the bigger of the two main islands of Caribbean island state Trinidad and Tobago. The elections were held slightly more than one month later than originally planned. They were held to select the membership of 14 local authorities, with representatives elected from 137 single-member districts across the country. The entire membership of Trinidad's local government was renewed as a result of these elections, with the previous set of local representatives having been elected in 2013. The elections came roughly a year following the 2015 parliamentary general election.
Local elections in Trinidad and Tobago were held on 2 December 2019, contesting 139 electoral districts across Trinidad's 14 municipal corporation electoral areas.
General elections were held in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, 10 August 2020, to elect 41 members to the 12th Trinidad and Tobago Republican Parliament. It was the 14th election since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and the 22nd national election in Trinidad and Tobago ever. Tracy Davidson-Celestine, political leader of the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement (PNM) became the first woman to lead a Tobagonian political party with representation in the House of Representatives. Additionally, two of the three largest parties elected in 2015, the United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of the People (COP), were led by women.
House of Assembly elections were held in Tobago on 25 January 2021 where 12 members were elected in the eleventh election since the Assembly was established in 1980. This election marked the first time in history that both parties elected, the People's National Movement (PNM) and Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) won an equal number seats of 6-6, despite the PNM winning the popular vote, resulting in a deadlock and a constitutional crisis with both political parties and Prime Minister Keith Rowley seeking senior counsel advice on the way forward. This election was the first time after 20 years in power that the PNM lost its absolute majority. This election also marked the first time a female political leader was elected to the Assembly and the first time a woman led a major political party or a political party with representation in the Assembly, following the 2020 Tobago Council of the People's National Movement leadership election where Health Secretary, councillor and former Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador to Costa Rica and former Deputy Chief Secretary of Tobago Tracy Davidson-Celestine made history by being elected as the PNM's first female political leader at the regional or national level and one of the first bilingual political leaders in the country's history. If Davidson-Celestine and the PNM were to be elected with a majority to their sixth consecutive term in office, she would have made history, becoming the first female Chief Secretary of Tobago. The election was held alongside local by-elections in Trinidad in which the PNM and UNC retained two districts and the PNM losing one to the UNC.
The Tobago Council of the People's National Movement, also known as the Tobago Council of the PNM, PNM Tobago or PNM Tobago Council, is the longest-serving and oldest active political party in Tobago. The party is the autonomous branch of the Trinidad and Tobago People's National Movement operating in Tobago. While its political leader acts in the local capacity, they also serve as a deputy leader on a national level. The party's executives organize for both local and national election campaigns. There have been three PNM Chief Secretaries and administrations.
The 2020 Tobago Council of the People's National Movement election were held on January 19, 2020. For the first time, a one member, one vote voting system was adopted for all 17 positions contested. The winner, Tracy Davidson-Celestine, the first female political leader for the party, will go on to contest the Chief Secretary position of the Tobago House of Assembly in the 2021 Tobago House of Assembly election.
The 2022 People's National Movement internal election, the last one for the PNM before the subsequent general election, took place over three days: November 26 and 27 and December 4, 2022. The current party leader and Prime Minister Keith Rowley had indicated he would most likely not seek to lead the party into the next general election. Rowley made these comments in his victory speech on the night of the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election, where the PNM secured a second mandate under his leadership but with the slimmest majority for a government in two decades. However, he announced that he would seek another term as the party's leader in October 2022. In the 2020 general election campaign, he indicated that he would have stood down had the PNM lost. The election followed the 2022 Tobago Council of the People's National Movement leadership election. Keith Rowley won re-election by an overwhelming majority with a low voter turnout with 9,111 out of 105,894 eligible party members voting.
Snap House of Assembly elections were held in Tobago on 6 December 2021 to elect all 15 members of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). The election was called following a deadlock created by the January 2021 elections which resulted in a tie between the People's National Movement (PNM) and the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), with both parties winning six seats. As a result, the number of seats in the legislature was increased from 12 to 15 to avoid ties.
Elections for the leadership of the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement were on April 24, 2022. For the second time, a one member, one vote voting system was adopted for all 17 positions contested since being implemented in the last election. The winner automatically became a deputy leader of the PNM at the national level. This election preceded the internal election of the leadership of the party at the national level in the 2022 People's National Movement leadership election.
The 2023 Trinidadian local elections were held on Monday, August 14, 2023, across all 141 electoral districts in Trinidad's 14 municipal corporation electoral areas. The elections follow a 3-2 ruling on May 18, 2023, from the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago's highest court of appeal, which stated that the government's one-year extension of the mandate of councillors and alderman was unlawful. The matter was brought before the Law Lords of the Privy Council by Ravi Balgobin Maharaj, and his legal team led by Anand Ramlogan, SC. The legal action taken by Ravi Balgobin Maharaj was necessary after the PNM government decided to extend the election by one year, which the Privy Council ruled was inconsistent with the rule of Democracy. The judgement handed down to Ravi Balgobin Maharaj by the Law Lords was a landmark ruling in the Commonwealth and marks the first time that a Court upheld the rights of citizens to vote in a Local Government Election.
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